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THE 



EASTERN CHEROKEES. 



A REPORT 

C. C. PAINTER. 



P^.- 



I SEP 30 i 868. 



PHILADELPHIA : 

INDIAN RIGHTS ASSOCIATION, 

1305 Arch Street. 



LIST OF UFFICERS FOR THE YEAR i888. 



PRESIDENT. 

DR. JAMKS E. RHOADS. 

VICE-PRESIDENT. 

CLEMENT M. BIDDLE. 

TREASURER. 

ROBERT FRAZER. 

CORRESPONDING SECRETARY 

HERBERT WELSH. 

RECORDING SECRETARY. 

A. B.WEIMER. 



executive 
Clement M. Biudi.e, 
William O. Butler, 
F. Hazen Cope, 
William Drayton, 
Robert Frazek, 
W. W. Frazier, Jr., 
Philip C. Garrett, 
Rev. J. Andrews Harris, D.I 
Prof. E. J. Jame.s, 
J. Topliff Johnson. 

Rt. Rev. O. W. 



COMMITTEE, 

Thomas Leaming, 
James MacAllster, 
Charles E. Pancoast, 
Henry S. Pancoast, 
J. Rodman Paul, 
Dr. jA.Mh:s E. Rhoaus, 
Rev. H. L. Waylanu, D.D., 

)., A. B. Weimer, 
Herbert Welsh, 
James A. Wright, 

Whitaker, D. D. 



THE EASTERN CHEROKEES. 



A REPORT BV C. C. PAINTER. 



That there is in southwestern North Carolina a band of 
Cherokees numbering nearly two thousand is to many, even 
intelligent friends of the Indians, a matter of great surprise ; 
of course their condition is wholly unknown to them. 

Of these, about one thousand live in what is known as the 
" Qualla Boundary," in the counties of Swain and Jackson ; these 
are full bloods. In the counties of Graham and Cherokee there 
are about six hundred, one-half of whom are full bloods, and 
one-half mixed bloods. Nearly four hundred, all of whom are 
mixed bloods, are to be found in the counties of Buncome, 
Yancey, Madison and Clay. 

The Indians own in common, as estimated by different agents, 
from 65,000 to 100,000 acres of land, 50,000 of which is within 
the Qualla Boundary, the other 15,000, as per estimate of 
ex-Agent Holmes, or 30,000 according to ex-Agent Gibson, or 
50,000 as claimed by the present Agent Lealherwood, lie in 
detached tracts outside of the Qualla Boundary, chiefly in the 
counties of Graham and Cherokee. While these agents vary 
widely in their estimates of the quantity of land owned by the 
Indians, all agree in describing it as mountainous, fertile, well- 
watered, heavily timbered, and well adapted to agriculture and 
grazing. The title is held in trust, by the Commissioner of 
Indian Affairs, for the band, but has been clouded as to certain 
portions of it by the, as yet undisturbed, encroachment upon it 
of whites, greatly to the annoyance of the Indians. These 
agents also agree in describing these Indians as " quite advanced 
in civilization;" as "comparing favorably with their white 
neighbors;" as "living and dressing as white men;" as 
3 



4 THE EASTERN CHEROKEES. 

" chiefly engaged in agriculture, and are almost as good farmers 
as their white neighbors;" "an industrious people, each head of 
a family having a farm, which is well cultivated in most cases." 
" They are a quiet, honest, law-abiding people, making good 
progress in education and civilization." "While they are sub- 
ject to the laws of the State, it is a rare thing to see an Indian 
arraigned in court ; in fact, they obey the State laws much better 
than the whites." " They seem to be thoroughly united in pur- 
pose to elevate each other and to work together for the general 
good of the band." 

"They are much attached to their homes, their ancestors hav- 
ing occupied this delightful, healthful country for years in the 
past, where the bones of their great warriors, such as Junaluska, 
of Florida fame, consecrate the craggy heights of the Allegheny 
range." 

" Denominationally they are Baptists and Methodists. Well- 
attended sabbath schools usually precede church services." 
" There are nine ministers of the Gospel, full-blooded Indians, 
in this band, who break ' the bread of life ' each Sabbath, to well- 
attended congregations at some eight or nine different points." 
" Among them there are some of intelligent minds, and had they 
enjoyed our civilization earlier would probably now have been 
occupying higher spheres in life ; but what the fathers have 
failed to achieve can be reasonably looked for among the child- 
ren of the present generation, who are now enjoying excellent 
educational advantages, through the beneficent acts of Congress 
and a fund of their own, set apart for this purpose by the wise 
forethought of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs." 

These quotations, which might be made much fuller, give 
fairly the consensus of these several Agents as to the character 
and prospects of these people. Of the school work which is now 
being done among them. Agent Gibson says, in 1883, the first 
year, I believe, after the Quakers took charge of them, previous 
to which there was no educational work of any value: "At five 
different points schools are conducted, under the supervision of 
the Society of Friends, during ten months of the year, and are 
well attended." " These Indians, at this time, seem to be much 
interested in the subject of education ; they desire to learn the 
English language, and many of the younger ones speak and read 



THE EASTERN CHEROKEES. 5 

it very well. These people enjoy the benefit of much mission- 
ary work from neighboring ministers of different denominations. 
In my humble opinion the prospect looks favorable that at no 
great distance in the future the people of this band will be fit 
subjects for useful and intelligent citizens." In his report for 
1884, he says: "A large majority of these people are firm 
believers in the Christian religion. The schools conducted by 
the Society of Friends have been quite successful during the 
past year." 

Agent I. L. Holmes, in his report dated August 25th, 1885, 
says : " There are five day schools that are in session seven 
months in the year. These are doing a good work, and are 
moderately well attended, though not as well as they ought to 
be ; but the interest in the schools, both by the young and the old, 
is on a steady increase. 

" The large, handsome building being erected by the Govern- 
ment at this place (Cherokee, the capital of the band) will be 
completed and ready for use by October ist. There is now 
room and accommodations in this training school for forty 
pupils ; after the new building is completed there will be room 
for eighty. In the day and training schools here I have religious 
teachers who make the moral advancement of the children a 
special work. The instruction is general, and not sectarian. In 
these schools very little running away has occurred during the 
year. There is a steady increase in the use of the English lan- 
guage." 

" At the training school the boys have exhibited great inter- 
est in the farm work, being always ready to work, and seem to 
be pleased at the prospect of a fine crop from their labor. The 
girls also take great interest in the household duties, such as 
sewing, cooking, chamber-work, etc. All seem happy and con- 
tented with their work and studies. This school, as well as the day 
school, is most fortunate in having a most excellent Christian 
gentleman as superintendent, and most excellent teachers that 
are perfectly devoted to their work. Upon the whole, the pros- 
pects of this band are very bright, and, with a good live Agent, 
nothing can prevent a sufificient advancement in education and 
civilization to make this band, in a short time, fully competent 
to discharge all the duties of citizens of this great Government." 



6 THE EASTERN CHEROKEES. 

Under date of July 26th, 1888, the present Agent, an ap- 
pointee of the present Administration, wlio found " tlie affairs of 
the Agency in a flustrated condition," reports as follows: "I 
will next take up the educational work, which has been under 
the supervision of the Society of Friends for the last five years. 
There are five schools at this Agency. The Cherokee training 
school, which is located at Ciivrokee, is in a flourishing con- 
dition. This school is carried on by the Government. The 
other four schools are run by (expenses paid from) the interest 
of the trust fund belonging to the Eastern Band of Cherokces, 
the Society of Friends having control of the entire educational 
work. . . . The superintendent of these schools, Professor 
Spray, is a man of unquestioned ability, a devoted Christian, 
and has had much experience in educational work. The teach- 
ers have all been educated in the best institutions of the country, 
and are thoroughly competent to impart knowledge to these 
pupils. Every selfish interest is laid aside, and nothing but the 
interest of the Indians enters the minds of the teachers. If the 
schools progress as they have in the past there is a glorious 
future, a bright and happy destiny for the Indians of the Eastern 
Cherokee Agency. . . . There are no crimes committed by 
tiiese Indians, not even the smallest misdemeanors ; all seem to 
aj)preciate that high degree of civil conduct which makes them 
great as a people, and worthy of the highest respect in society. 
They have taken up the onward march of civilization and are 
nearing a bright future. Surrounded as they have been by 
whites, they have adopted their customs and habits, making 
their living by honest industry and earnest toil." 

Once more, in his last report, dated July 25th, 1887, .\gent 
I.eatiierwood says of these schools : " They are well patronized by 
the Indians, and are doing much good. The children who attend 
them soon learn to speak, read and write the English language. 
I think the educational interest is rapidly advancing, and will 
soon be the means of making good, intelligent and industrious 
citizens of these Indians." 

" There is a training school carried on at this .\gency in 
which are kept forty Indian children ; twenty boys and twenty 
girls are boarded, clothed and instructed. The boys, in addi- 
tion to the various English branches, are taught to farm, to use 



THE EASTERN CHEROKEES. 7 

Stock, to work in the shops, and various other useful industries ; 
and the girls, in' addition to the English branches, are taught 
housekeeping, dairy work, and various other duties. This school 
is supported by Government, and is under the control of H. W. 
Spray, by contract. The children have made rapid progress, 
which clearly shows that the mind of the Indian is capable of 
being improved." 

I have quoted thus fully from the reports of these several 
Agents, covering the period during which the schools have been 
under the present management, two of them appointees of the 
present administration and reporting on the work of teachers 
appointed under the previous Commissioner, on the presumption 
that they have been honestly and intelligently made, and also 
because whether or not reliable, they are authorized sources of 
information upon which the administration must, per force, it 
would seem, base its action when called to act in reference to 
the schools. 

I^ have also quoted so largely from them because found by a 
personal visitation and inspection to be trustworthy and correct. 

I found the lands of the Qually Boundary to be as described, 
fertile, broken, well watered, heavily timbered, well adapted to 
agriculture in the valleys of the beautiful Ocona-Lufty, Soco and 
Tuckasiegee, and for grazing on the mountains. The people in 
their civilization, interest in education, well ordered lives and 
general desire for progress are all that these reports represented, 
and the training school at Cherokee — -the day school had closed 
for the summer vacation — in the work it was doing, and in the 
personal qualifications and enthusiastic devotion of the superin- 
tendent and teachers, all and more than all that had been repre- 
sented. For a rounded and symmetrical work, both in and out 
of the school room, in the field, shop, kitchen and laundry, I do 
not think I have seen its equal at any other Government Indian 
school, and I am glad to be able to adopt and endorse fully the 
eulogistic language of these reports. The work that has been 
done here is wonderful in the results already achieved, more 
wonderful in the promise it gives for the future. Not alone in 
the children is it seen, but, by universal testimony, it is touching 
with a quickening impulse the adult Indians, and is waking up 
the white farmers of the neighborhood. Improved implements, 



8 THE EASTERN CHEROKEES. 

seen first in the hands of these pupils, are finding their way into 
the hands of the whites, and better methods of tillage are teach- 
ing them (juiet lessons of thrift and progress. 

The school children, boys and girls, seemed to take great 
interest in the work which fell to them to do, whether in the 
corn field, the dairy, the shop, the kitchen and laundry, or in the 
school room, a personal interest and pride, as if it belonged to 
them to do, and in the doing of it well they had advantage, 
present and prospective. They went at it with the pleasant 
alacrity of willing children glad to please themselves and their 
guardians. This was a remarkable feature of the school and 
home life of this large family, which I had full opportunity to 
study for several days. Nothing was perfunctory on the part 
either of teacher or pupil ; everything was done con amore, 
quietly, kindly, faithfully ; nowhere was there the least thing 
to suggest that there was lynx-eyed espionage and astern master- 
ship ; it was simply a well regulated family in which each member 
seemed happy to do his part toward the success of whatever the 
family had in hand to do. 

L'nfortunately, a late frost had injured the wheat, which, other- 
wise, had promise of an abundant yield. The corn was looking 
well, and was requiring and receiving the enthusiastic attention 
of the boys, under the guidance of the industrial teacher ; 
nothing was slack or behind in the work necessary to secure a 
full crop. 

Teachers and pupils all ate at the same tables, of the same 
food, and at the same time. The food was clean, wholesome 
and abundant, and was eaten under no other regulations than 
would prevail in any well regulated family. A wholesome 
religious earnestness, free from cant or sentimentalism, con- 
trolled, or rather pervaded and animated, all the activities of 
this home. The day closed with a gathering of all in a common 
room for a religious service of Bible reading, song and prayer, 
after which the children all passed out, shaking hands with each 
teacher and bidding them good-night ; the boys retiring to 
the old dormitory, and the girls to their rooms in the new Clov- 
ernment building. 

What work I saw in the school was of such character as to 
justify Agent Leatherwood when he says, " The superintendent, 



THE EASTERN CHEROKEES. 9 

Professor Spray, is a man of unquestioned ability, a devoted 
Christian, and has had much experience in educational work. 
The teachers have all been educated in the best institutions in 
the country, and are thoroughly competent to impart knowledge 
to these pupils." 

I gave the children an example in arithmetic, which was given 
by a travelling salesman to a number of his companions on the 
cars, as I came down from Asheville, which several of them 
failed to solve, but which was readily done by the children. 
Everywhere, in connection with school, shop, kitchen and home, 
there was evidence of careful, conscientious work. 

It would seem, with the testimony on file in the Indian 
Bureau, from its own agents, as to the unusual efficiency of the 
teaching force, and wise superintendency of its work, there could 
be no question as to the approval and continued support of the 
Department, and of the satisfaction the Commissioner would 
feel in view of it. One would naturally suppose that an execu- 
tive officer charged with the delicate and responsible work of 
expending the nation's charities and its wards' own funds in an 
effort to civilize them, one who was controlled, as he has so 
often asserted that he is, by the single purpose of doing the very 
best that could be done for them, who allows, as he has so often 
said, no other consideration to have the least weight with him in 
the administration of his office, would make every effort to 
retain in the service such workers as those in charge of these 
schools were reported by his own agents to be, especially as he 
has had occasion to excuse want of success at other points by 
the plea that it is very difficult, for the salaries paid, to find 
competent emplo)'6s and teachers. With these reports before 
him, it is difficult for one to understand why outside friends had 
to make a determined and persistent fight, one year ago, to 
keep the schools under the management of this excellent force. 

A brief history of the facts will be necessary to a proper 
understanding of this case, and will, at the same time, throw a 
strong side-light upon the theory and methods of the Indian 
Office as it has been conducted in the management of Indian 
schools, and Indian affairs generally. 

Knowing that Commissioner Atkins desired the removal of 
these Indians to the Indian Territory, I asked him his reasons 



lO THE EASTERN CHEROKEES. 

for SO doing. Among other things he casually let drop one 
remark, which, to my mind, betrayed the "true inwardness" 
of the effort which has been made to change the control of the 
schools and to remove the Indians. He said, " They have be- 
come mixed up in politics." The inference was neither remote 
nor strained that they were not voting to please the representa- 
tive from that Congressional district and the Commissioner of 
Indian Affairs. 

The interests involved and the gravity of the situation readily 
gained the consent of the Executive Committee of the Indian 
Rights Association to the urgent request of the Chief of this 
band, that I should go down and learn the facts. They are as 
follows. These Indians had, until the last Presidential election, 
voted, for the most part, the Democratic ticket. At that elec- 
tion they, with great unanimity, voted for Blaine and Logan. 
Mr. Spray, the Superintendent of the schools, came to his work 
some two months before the election. The politicians did not 
like this change of front ; it boded, and to some extent, in their 
view, worked political evil. The whites, who look with some- 
thing of Ahab's feelings upon the beautiful valleys occupied by 
these Indians, saw an opportunity to get possession of Naboth's 
fields. Certain men who represented in part, not so exclusively, 
not so largely even as they persuaded themselves, and fain would 
have persuaded others, the missionary and educational work 
which had been done among these people for fifty years before 
the Friends got the contract for the schools, and who are much 
grieved that they should not have the handling of the money 
which is now expended in this work, saw their opportunity to 
use a very long lever for prying out the I-'riends and making a 
hopeful opening for themselves. In this effort there was easily 
rallied that sentiment, not altogether latent nor inert, still per- 
vading much of the South, which deprecates and depreciates, 
and ostracises, and sometimes villifies " foreign influence" when- 
ever it comes in to leaven any southern community, easily stig- 
matizing and damning it as "carpet-bag." These various 
influences, interests, and sentiments, speaking into the ear of the 
Commissioner, or rather of the acting Commissioner (for he it 
was chiefly who figures in this affair), through the mouth of 
])oliticians, easily persuaded him that chronological succession 



THE EASTERN CHEROKEES. II 

in events was proof of logical and causal connection ; that the 
coming of Spray was the cause of the changed vote of the 
Indian, who found in that fact abundant reason, if not for the 
removal of the Indian, at least for the immediate and uncon- 
ditional removal of Spray. 

A special inspector (a very youthful one, a native of North 
Carolina, the clerk of the Deputy Commissioner, who was thus 
enabled to visit his home at government expense) was sent down 
to investigate. A council of the band was duly called and fully 
attended. The Inspector asked all who were in favor of con- 
tinuing the prt.'sent management of their schools to stand up. 
The entire council, excepting one man, arose. This man, with 
such others as he could find of like sentiment, was invited to a 
secret " Bush Council," and the Inspector's report was based 
not on the vote of the council, but of this man. 

I was told by the chairman of the County Democratic Com- 
mittee, who saw and conversed with this inspector, and who 
heartily endorses and approves of the schools, as do the best 
citizens of the county, that it was very evident that it had been 
agreed upon in the Indian Office, before the inspector started 
from Washington, what he should report. 

The Commisssioner refused to renew the contract with Mr. 
Spray for the Boarding School, but, as it would seem, not daring 
to turn the Friends out, made the contract with Mr. Hobbs, of 
Indiana, who largely represents the Friends in their educational 
work for the Indians. So the school started off under the same 
management but not under the same responsible contractor. 
Suddenly Mr. Hobbs, whose duties required his presence in the 
work in Indiana, had a telegram from Mr. Upshaw, demanding 
why he was not in Cherokee, taking care of his school, ordering 
his immediate presence there, and the dismissal of Mr. Spray. 
Deeming it wise not to raise a controversy on account of any one 
man, which might imperil the whole work, he decided to dismiss 
Mr. Spray and put some one else in charge ; but when he found 
that this would involve the loss of every employe and the stam- 
pede of every pupil, he telegraphed Upshaw that he would have 
to carry out the threatened alternative, and cancel his contract. 

Upshaw then telegraphed agent Leatherwood to go to Chero- 
kee, take possession of the government property and send the 



12 THE EASTERN CHEROKEES. 

children home. The agent was embarrassed to know just what 
he could take charge of, as most of the buildings — all but one — 
belonged to the Friends, who had some interest in this one also. 
The children he could not send home, partly for lack of funds, 
and partly, 'also, for lack of authority, for, if they chose, they 
could go into the buildings owned by the Friends. He tele- 
grajjhed Brother Upshaw that he thought it best that the order 
be suspended ; it was finally abrogated altogether, the valiant 
Deputy finding, in vulgar but suitably expressive parlance, that 
he had bitten off more than he could easily masticate. The 
Agent was instructed to explain carefully to the Indians that the 
action taken against Spray was dictated neither by personal nor 
political reasons. Just what the particular reasons were which 
impelled him he never explained. Though apparently a man 
who simply bubbles over with an exuberance of reasons, and can 
produce them largely in excess on any ordinary occasion, yet in 
this instance he dealt only in negatives. 

The school, after this interruption, ran on successfully through 
the year, which was nearing its close at the time of my visit. 

I found that an effort to have, not simply Spray removed, but 
the management of the school handed over to the Methodists, 
was being ])ushed with great zeal and persistency. Petitions to 
this end were in circulation among the Indians and among the 
whites. 

Those back of the movement say that the Methodist Church 
has filled out about sixty years of missionary work among these 
people, in which they have expended $15,000, and they ought to 
have the management of the work — that it ought not to be 
turned over now to these foreign, outside parties. They do not 
say so in their petition, but they do assert, and were procuring 
affidavits to establish as a fact, what they hope will prove efficient 
with the Department in case it paid no attention to religious 
or denominational considerations, that Mr. Spray continues to 
influence the Indians politically, and even bought their votes at 
the last election with tobacco. 

The question was submitted again to the Indians, in a fully 
attended conference during my visit, as to their wish to have the 
present management continued. The vote was unanimous in 
favor. Two did not vote. One explained that he did not 



THE EASTERN CHEROKEES. I3 

understand, because the vote was asked for by the interpreter in 
Cherokee, and he did not talk that language. The other said he 
did not vote because he would not take sides when there were 
two sides to a question, but he was in favor of the schools. 

The Indians called my attention to the fact that it was white 
men alone who were circulating the petitions, and not Indians. 
They also said it was true the Methodist church has done Mis- 
sionary work and taught school among them for fifty years or 
more, but, they asked : " Where are the results of it?" " Where 
are the Indians who can talk or read English, who were taught 
in those schools?" It was very funny to hear some of them 
describe the schools as they were in their days. They pointed 
with pride and great satisfaction to the change which is now 
being wrought by the present schools. 

The so-called interference of Mr. Spray with the politics of 
the Indians at the last Presidential election was explained to me 
by the Chief, and in the last State election by the Chairman of 
the Democratic Committee for the County. The Chief met Gen- 
eral Logan in Washington, and was delighted with him, espe- 
cially as he was part Indian ; he told the people that in voting 
for Logan they would elect one of their own people to the next 
highest office under the Government. They did so to a man, 
but Spray had nothing to do with it. 

The purchase of votes by Mr. Spray, with tobacco, at the last 
election, on which fact the good Methodist brother who is push- 
ing for his place bases his hopes, was explained to me by the 
Chairman of the County Democratic Committee, who was a 
candidate for the State Legislature at the time when this is said 
to have occurred. He gave to Mr. Spray's interpreter a package 
of tobacco, cut into small squares, along with the ballots for 
both candidates, as the school wagon was starting to the polling 
place, and asked him, when the polls were closed, to give it to 
the Indians — a fact of which Spray was ignorant. As the team 
was driving away at the close of the election the interpreter 
thought of the tobacco and threw it out, saying " This is Col- 
lin's treat." He said also that there was no Republican ticket 
in the field, and if Spray did buy votes with tobacco it was for 
himself, the chairman of the Democratic Committee. This is 
all there is of this, and those who are pushing the case know the 



14 THE EASTERN CHEROKEES. 

facts, and yet hope they may be so used as to give the Methodist 
church control of these schools. A very excellent retired min- 
ister who, I was told, would be put in charge of the school if the 
movement succeeds, and who hopes for the change, not because 
the schools are not good now, for he says they could not be 
improved, but because he wants his church to have them, when 
I asked him if he believed that Spray did do what was charged 
in the affidavits, frankly said he did not, that Spray was not 
that kind of a man. 

A few conclusions reached in my own mind some time since 
have been strengthened and reaffirmed by this visit. The diffi- 
culties in the work of civilizing the Indians are not to be found 
so much in the Indians as in our method, or want of method in 
our civilizing work. Under our plan of dealing with them so 
many overshadowing and antagonistic interests receive primary 
consideration that this interest is necessarily set aside or ruth- 
lessly sacrificed. That Indians are on lands adapted to their 
needs, in which they have taken root, every feature of which 
is sacred to them as the grave of their ancestors and home of 
themselves and children ; this is a consideration which seems 
to have no weight in the estimation of those charged with the 
duty of establishing them in civilized homes, if it can be shown 
that any political, social, or pecuniary prejudices or interests 
of the white race require that they shall be torn from them 
and planted elsewhere, or even cast adrift without a home, if 
necessary. 

Entrusting the hopes, interests, civilization, lives even, of a 
people to the care of a Bureau which is a very important part of 
a complex political machine, which, from the very nature of the 
case, will be run with reference to ends which are often, in the 
estimation of the engineers in charge, hostile to the interests of 
these people, is an amazing solecism and cruel blunder. When 
it is in the power of the official entrusted, for instance, with the 
educational interests of these people, in the very midst of a hope- 
ful and most promising school year, by a telegram to order the 
dismissal of every teacher in the school, and the return of every 
pupil to its home, on a report, the nature of which had been 
determined upon before the inspector was sent out, and in view 
of alleged facts, which, even if they had been true, were in no 



THE EASTERN CHEROKEES. 



15 



way related to the work which was being done, what can we 
hope for in the way of permanent success ? 

There can be no real and satisfactory progress made in any 
work unless it is the chief interest of those engaged in it to make 
it successful — most assuredly not, so long as they have in view, as 
of more importance, an end utterly inconsistent with it. 

This amazing solecism underlies the whole effort we are making 
to civilize the Indian, and this should be recognized as a fact 
and borne in mind as necessary to a fair judgment of results. 
The deplorable extent to which our efforts are being continually 
defeated by it is not understood by the people, or they would 
demand a radical change of our policy and method. 

At present the management of Indian affairs, in which are 
involved all that relates to their intellectual, industrial, moral 
and even religious training, is in the hands of those who have 
power to sacrifice all these in order to reward political friends, 
or further purely personal and partisan ends, and they who are 
thus sacrificed have no redress except as public sentiment can be 
successfully appealed to and educated up to the point where it 
will be felt in its demand that these wrongs shall be righted. 
There are no existing laws which can be invoked in their behalf, 
and they have no voice in the laws that may be enacted for their 
management, and the law makers have no fears of adverse votes 
because of the laws they may or may not enact. 

A few months since eight Indians were arrested by a sheriff 
in Minnesota, and put in jail. Their offence was absence from 
their reservation without the written consent or permit of their 
Agent. They were driving logs for a lumberman and earning 
Si. 50 per day. It is not long since two intelligent, industrious 
Indians were banished from a Reservation, leaving behind them 
cultivated fields, stock, etc., simply because they did not please 
their master, the Agent in charge, who also seized and prevented 
the use of a printing press bought and brought on to the Reserva- 
tion by another Indian for the purpose of issuing a paper. In 
such cases there is no law to which the aggrieved Indian can 
appeal. His property, his home, his opportunities for getting 
or using an education, or even of doing a day's work, are all at 
the mercy of an official whose position and occupation would be 
gone if the Indian should become intelligent and self-supporting, 



id THE EASTERN CHEROKEES. 

and this official has appointment under a system and a policy 
which imposes no direct responsibility under law upon him for 
doing the work he is set to do. Let him satisfy the Comptroller 
of the Treasury as to the accuracy of his financial accounts, and 
he has no accountability under law for the civilization of the 
Indian. 

These Cherokees are citizens of North Carolina; have funds 
of their own from which their day schools are supported ; have 
their own lands, upon which they live and from which they draw 
their support. Why should they have an Agent appointed over 
them, with a show of authority for interfering with their affairs? 
His office is without real authority, and has no practical value to 
these people or to the Government. The boarding school, for 
which increased appropriations have been made this year suffi- 
cient to double the number of its pupils, is supported by the 
(iovernment, and is properly under Government control ; but it 
is a control that is under no proper legal limitation or responsi- 
bility for its right exercise. 

The Agents from whom I have quoted all agree that these 
people, under proper instruction, such as they are receiving 
in the schools as now conducted, would soon be qualified to 
take their places fully as free .Vmerican citizens, with honor to 
themselves and advantage to the Slate; but, as we have seen, 
this educational work, supported by the American people, is at 
the mercy of any upstart who, by the chance evolutions and 
revolutions of party politics, may happen to be appointed clerk 
in a Bureau, and for a time be its acting head. On the merest 
pretext, to gratify any whim of his own, or meet any political or 
personal demand which may be made on his good nature, he 
has power, and disposition to wield it, to overthrow this good 
work, and throw back into savagery those whom the nation is 
seeking to lift up into civilization. Mr. Upshaw's telegraphic 
order to Agent Leatherwood to close the school at Cherokee, 
and his order to all .Agents to close all mission schools in which 
any use is made of the Indian tongue, ought to set the American 
people to a serious consideration of the kind of despotism we 
have placed over more than a quarter of million of people, in the 
effort we are making to qualify them for citizenship in our free 
Republic. 



